Wow, it’s been a minute and a half huh? I know I always say it’s been too long but I really do mean it.

So tomorrow, May 3rd, my daughter and a bunch of her fellow students are staging a walkout at their school. What’s motivated them and kids all across the province to take a stand? Our newly elected provincial government.

The UCP campaigned on a lot of promises and one of them is to roll back protections for kids who join support groups at school, including QSAs. What is a QSA? It’s a queer/straight alliance. It’s where kids can go for understanding and support as they figure out who they are and where they may fall on the queer spectrum. It’s a safe space for them to spend time, especially those kids who know or even suspect that they won’t get any support at home.

The UCP is trying to sell it as being in the child’s best interest, to let the school and teachers decide if the parent should be told that their child has joined one of these groups. They want teachers and schools to be able to tell parents if they feel like the kids might be “in danger”.

The problem with their thinking is that they could be endangering the child even more by outing them to their parents.

In a perfect world it wouldn’t matter. In a perfect world, every parent would support their kid whether they are gay, straight or anything in between.

But this is not a perfect world.

It’s kind of funny actually. I’ve talked to some people about this lately and when I’m trying to explain it to them, I get “Well, that doesn’t really happen does it? No one really kicks out or beats or kills their kids for being gay these days. Aren’t these kids being a little dramatic?”

This is coming from good people who just can’t seem to wrap their heads around someone harming their kids for being gay or trans. To them, the thought that anyone would put their religion or their personal beliefs ahead of their love for their children would be horrific. I mean, your kids always come first right?

But it does happen. Parents who would rather their kid be dead than gay. Parents who toss them out with nothing, leaving them homeless and alone with no where to turn. Shelters are full of children who have been turned out by homophobic, bigoted parents. They are on the streets, doing whatever they have to do to survive and some don’t survive at all.

That’s why they are taking a stand. Meg will be interviewed by CBC radio tomorrow morning and then someone from the local paper is coming down to the school to talk to her as well.

I’m going down too. To stand back and watch. Because I’m so damned proud of her. My girl is going to do amazing things in her life and this is just the beginning. This protest is personal for her. She’s pansexual. That pretty much means that she’s more interested in what goes on between a person’s ear than what they have between their legs. I could just as easily end up with a daughter-in-law as I could a son-in-law, and that’s perfectly okay with me.

I’m also going down because I’m terrified of what could happen to her. There will be people who don’t agree with these amazing kids and these days, who knows what they will do. But I’m going to stand back and let her shine, along with everyone else who is there with her.

These kids are going to change the world for the better and these protests are just the beginning. I can’t wait to see where they will go from here.

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